News & Perspective

Oct 25, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers report that swine and human influenza A/H3N2 viruses associated with an Ohio county fair held in July make a nearly perfect genetic match, suggesting that there is almost no biological barrier to prevent such viruses from passing between humans and pigs.

Oct 02, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – Eleven of 16 hospitalized US cases of variant H3N2 (H3N2v) swine-origin influenza this past summer occurred in Ohio, and 10 of those were in children, according to a report that also suggests that even healthy people stay away from pigs at fairs to avoid flu infection.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who spent the past 3 years testing pigs for influenza A viruses at county fairs in Ohio found that infected animals commonly appear clinically normal, highlighting one of the challenges health officials faced in preventing the spread of variant influenza to humans at fairs this summer.

Oct 01, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that influenza vaccines for the Southern Hemisphere's 2013 flu season should contain the same three strains as the vaccines now being administered to millions in the Northern Hemisphere.

Sep 21, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – An investigation of one of the first swine-origin H3N2 influenza cases detected in the United States in 2011 suggests that for each confirmed case, there may be many more that go undetected.

Sep 14, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – The number of swine-origin H3N2 (variant H3N2, or H3N2v) influenza cases in the United States has climbed by 9 in the past week, to 305, and another rare swine-origin variant, H1N1v, has cropped up in Missouri, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

Sep 11, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – A Korean-US research team has identified an H1N2 strain of swine influenza capable of killing ferrets and spreading among them by respiratory droplets, underlining the continuing threat of swine flu to humans amid a wave of swine-origin flu cases in Americans exposed to pigs at agricultural fairs.

Aug 31, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials today reported the first death from the summer outbreak of a new H3N2 flu virus, in an older adult from Ohio who had multiple underlying conditions and had direct exposure to pigs at a fair.

Aug 24, 2012

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported 52 more variant H3N2 (H3N2v) flu infections and said it has learned of three instances of likely human-to-human spread of the novel virus, though most cases have been linked to pig exposure, especially at fairs.